meritocracy is a lie used to trick the poor into slaving away at dead end jobs thinking they will become rich,
No. The first meritocracy that had any real organized form to it was actually the Chinese Confucian model, which I have qualms with now but was revolutionary for its time. The idea of meritocracy is based on human capital, in that all the talents, abilities, personalities, etc. within a person allows them to essentially market these skills to be useful to society. Meritocratic systems mean that instead of hiring or promoting people based on things like nepotism, family linage, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., we can focus on how good someone is at doing their job and what skills they have.
Though societies will always have some corruption in the form of these things due to human nature, if we can slowly progress to a point where these things are considered irrelevant and what defines you as a person is more based on choices, beliefs, attitudes, and, most importantly, actions, then there will be less injustice because it is based on things more personally held by a person and what they have done.
Essentially, trying to strive for a system that bases success on what skills and talents people have rather than on things like what class they are, what race they are, what gender they are, etc. allows for more diverse and widespread chances for success due to the many avenues in life someone could take to reach the tops of certain hierarchies within society. The artist, the politician, the military general, the chef, and the author all have wildly different vocations and skills, yet, under a meritocratic system, they would all be able to pursue avenues of success that are different and potentially succeed in them.
there needs to be a good standard of life for all.
Yes, but that is best achieved by first making sure society is able to have a surplus of resources that can be allocated via social programs to those in need. In order to make wealth, you need people who are willing to take risks and have those risks eventually pay off, which will allow for the generation of capital and the spread of wealth from it as they create things that society considers "good" or that there is demand for within the market. The more competition, flow of wealth, and social mobility a society has, the better off everyone, even those in the lowest strata, can be. Which is why you need to incentive people to want to succeed and produce in order to keep that wealth flowing. Consider the velocity of money: if you spend $10 bucks at a shop and the shopkeeper spends $10 to replenish his stock, and the stockprovider spends $10 to buy his wife dinner, and the diner saves that $10, you have essentially bought $40 worth of goods for the same $10. Hence why consumer spending makes people wealthier, because it allows for the exchange of money through many hands that all need to buy goods and services.
Rich people contribute nothing to society as they make their money by stealing the value created by the work of the poor.
Not so fast, as entrepreneurs and investors act as the most foundational means of generating wealth in society as they take risks in order to potentially make more money, which provides a good or service to society at large. Not only do they keep a large amount of people employed, which allows them to spend any money they earn as they see fit, but it also allows society to generate capital that can be used via taxes to keep institutions going and increase the ability for universally needed things like schools, fire departments, etc. to keep running. They also encourage investment into the system because it has proven successful, allowing other individuals to want to help fund that success and to keep the enterprise going in the hopes of getting any expenditures they put in back when the business is successful by having a stake in the company.
Additionally, they do not "steal" the work of the poor. The poor sell their labor or skills to a firm via employment, which the company compensates them with, which they have to do by law. This is the social contract that's formed, in that firms need labor and manpower so they seek out people with these sets of skills and pay them according to how valuable the skills they have are in and how much demand for those skills there are. If more people have those same skills, the value of them decreases because there's so much supply. It's basic supply and demand.
Its not that making a utopia is possible or that it ever existed, but capitalist propaganda has taught you to believe that the current mediocrity we live in is the best there is and that we should never challenge the status quo out of the very possibility that we might mess up.
That's a misrepresentation of the argument, and it's not propaganda. The only reason you think we live in "mediocrity" is because you are unaware of just how successful our current society is by being on the inside of it and only ever knowing it from that lens. We live in an unparalleled era of human wealth and prosperity that has never been rivaled in human history. Child mortality, deaths by infectious disease, general education level, crime rates, etc. is so low due to the system we are in compare to what they were historically. The reason why capitalism is the best is it allows humans to manipulate the incentives of people that may seem selfish in a way that best benefits society, and then uses the fact that everyone has certain wants and drives to make everyone benefit from it, just as trade benefits all parties involved, and the exchange of money does as well.
To call the current system we live in "mediocre" lacks not only historical perspective but is ignorant to the social, technological, and scientific progress made in the last century compared to the sum of human history, and ignores that life in the pre-modern era was nasty, brutish, and short, full of much more pain and hardship than there is in modern times, as we are much more understanding and accommodating towards our fellow man now than 500 years ago.
Compared to that, Socialism has been failed in every country it has been tried in, at least Marxist socialism has. Contrary to popular belief, the Nordic countries are not socialist, but still run on a system with a market economy and which wealth is primarily earned through trade of labor, services, and goods. They just have a greater social safety net which they can afford because of their excess wealth from oil compared to their low population. Again, the market proving that if it is regulated to serve the good of the people, then it benefits everyone.
America only has freedom for white landowning men as that is what all the founding fathers were.
Something being the case historically does not mean it is the case now, and even then it's a broad overgeneralization as women could vote in some states until Jackson universalized the right to vote to all free men. Then America began to expand its rights with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution and later the 20th amendment. Now consider the various civil rights acts and laws the made it so women can't be discriminated in the workplace, and you'll begin to realize that you're operating from a very myopic view of "freedom," though I would agree that in the modern era take giants and society at large is starting to prosecute freedom of expression too much due to the belief it could promote dangerous ideas or "hate speech." Compare the rights you have now to the rights of 400 years ago, 300 years ago, 200 years ago, etc. and you'll see we're making uphill progress and that we're freer now than we've ever had been.
The proletariat has nothing to lose in a revolution as capitalism is only taking advantage of them
They have plenty to lose, actually. Their private property, means of social mobility, education, freedoms and liberties guaranteed to them, etc. The proletariat was shrinking for a good chunk of time under our system. Compare that to most socialist systems, where most people are all poor except for the ruthless and cutthroat of politicians and figures who can make it to the top of societies'.
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
@Snakeykid1
